Forum, this is our public outcry. Every year, with the start of our annual summer residency which begins our program, during the residency, all of our students, who are in the new cohort are in town from all over the country and many times all over the world. This is our way of reaching out to the public and letting you know who we are and what we do. We are our program is a graduate certificate program. Our mission is to train medical and Mental Health professionals, Health Professionals in the broader sense, to improve quality of care for lgbt people. Thats our mission. We started this around 2011. We thought, hey, there might be something to do here. A number of key things happened and we started the wheels moving. And here we are five years later. If you know anything about academia and what it takes to get a program launched and to keep it going, five years is pretty special. Were proud of it. Im also proud of our new class and our alumni. Im going to embarrass you for just one moment. Our new class members, class of 2018, stand up. There we go, yes. [ applause ] im not going to exaggerate by saying this is one of the best group of students weve had yet. And its not just blowing hot air. We also have some alumni in the house today, too, who are graduates of the program who are wonderful. Can i ask you guys to stand up for a second . Collin, adam, yeah. Theyre here. [ applause ] so for those of you who have come to the forum before, you know we usually do this down the street. And because this is a special year, we added on another event this year. We moved the forum here and instead of this being our big fund raising event, we have very special performance by margaret cho. If you didnt notice shes kind of in the lobby out there. She has graciously agreed to do a benefit concert, performance, for our program. And that is thursday night at the auditorium two blocks away. You can certainly get your tickets here. There are a handful of v. I. P. Tickets left and those include a meet and greet after the show. One of our good friends, good friends with many people, marty frank will be here and hes going to greet the crowd. Hell be there at the event as well. As your lawyer, i think you should remind people that margaret cho work is not safe for work, but its great. All right. As my lawyer, walter, tell me what you think about this. Heres what she had to say. We asked her for her comment about her coming performance in washington, d. C. My performance in washington, d. C. Will be the sickest show to date. Its all about the politics of disgust and whats disgusting about politics. So there you have it. Should be good. Thursday the 13th. Our wonderful folks outside the door can help you get tickets here or you can go to gwtickets. Com to pick them up. And the v. I. P. Tickets are there. The topic for tonights forum is in direct response to the events of last fall, november of 2016. Thats what made me feel it was salient. We live in an environment that is not only what we didnt expect to see but in very real ways potentially threatening to the progress weve made and to the very health of our population. Tonight well revisit the successes of the Lgbt Community. And specifically in the domain of marriage where we clearly had the most success in terms of advancing rights. We, you know, need to acknowledge that the successes are not enough that we have a lot more work to do and that we could learn from things such as Lawrence V Texas or the marriage protection act in maryland. Windsor versus United States. These are all cases that resulted in wins for what we would call wins for our side. And perhaps are informative to what we have to face moving forward. What we face moving forward is state bathroom laws in North Carolina. I know candice will have a lot to say about that. There are other threats to transgender people all over the country. We have the ca its somethingy attention to. We need to think about not only advancing the rights into public accommodation and employment and housing but making sure to protect what weve already done. Anyway. Its my pleasure to introduce very briefly each of the panelists you see here on stage. Theyre going to spend about three minutes each talking about, you know, what their relevance is to the conversation, their particular experiences. The cases they were involved in or the legislation they were involved in. Then well ill direct a few questions and we will leave plenty of time for q a. We really want to do that. There will be a microphone right there. Well ask at the given time you line up in front of that microphone. First of all to my left is walter dillinger. Hes the former actor solicitor general under the Clinton Administration and an assistant attorney general and author of many amicus briefs. Luke clippinger, maryland house of delegates and was a cosponsor for the Marriage Civil Protection act that brought marriage by referendum, not by case to the state of maryland. Chris and sandy perry were colitigants in holings worth. And right next to them, well, excuse me, theres candice, im sorry. Candice is from North Carolina, a transgender educator and activist in North Carolina and had the pleasure of meeting the former North Carolina governor and having a conversation about hb 2. And, of course, grafell, he was a lead plaintiff, which was the really culminating case that made marriage the law of the land in the United States. He, too, has a book called love wins. I believe theres a film theyre working on about your experience, too. Terrific. Last but certainly not least, is marty rowes. He was involved in the efforts that got the very first state that had marriage up in massachusetts. This is our panel today. I want to welcome them first. [ applause ] all right. Well go back to the very end here and spend about two, three minutes tops just telling us a little bit more about your case and then well launch into more of a discussion. Great, thank you. Its really wonderful to be here. Its hard to imagine that while we have Marriage Equality in the entire country, it was only 13 years ago when we didnt have marriage anywhere. When we think about the success of the lgbt civil rightsing movement, when we think about the struggles were facing now at the federal and state level. We have to remember how far we really have come in a relatively short amount of time for civil rights movements in our country. Ia i had the forchitune of working massachusetts. Massachusetts ruled in favor of Marriage Equality and gave the legislature six months to do what it needed to do in order to enact Marriage Equality or possibly not in massachusetts in 2004. So the court ruling came down in 2003. And they gave the legislature six months. I was brought on board as the first person hired in massachusetts to help prepare that state to defend that decision. Because the legislature was going to do everything it could to have a conversation and perhaps amend their state constitution to stop marriages from Going Forward. So we had six months in massachusetts to defend that decision and ultimately another two years because in order to amend the constitution in massachusetts, you have to do it twice. Once and then in the intervening election and do it again before you can amend the constitution. We had two and a half years to defend Marriage Equality in the first state. To think about back then and what it was like, it was a really tremendous battle for our movement. And most americans werent paying attention. Most lgbt people werent paying attention. That was where ground zero was in massachusetts. And that was a battle. And what we learned there, the Lessons Learned and our successes and some of our failures there really led down the path for how we were going to proceed. Focusing on winning in the courts. Focusing on passing legislation in the state legislatures or fighting against something in the state legislatures and getting involved to make sure we elect our friends and oppose our enemies. Building the political muscle of the Lgbt Community and winning in the court of public opinion. Bringing public stories and personal stories front and center to change the hearts and minds of americans. It really was in massachusetts where we really led the fight to begin with. Where our first success was, but where we really didnt know if we were going to hold massachusetts or not. Then miraculously look how quickly it spread through state legislative elections, through state victories, court victories. And also some ballot questions where we actually ultimately won on the ballot, especially in 2012 where four states won marriage at the ballot. Maryland, minnesota, maine, and Washington State. All in one year. Miraculously. Who would have thought it would have happened in one Election Year . We have come so far. We have learned a lot of lessons and i was fortunate to be on the ground in many of the states where you had these battles. I look forward to having conversations about how we move the ball forward. Thank you. I was never an activist. Neither was my late husband john. For almost the entire 21 years we were together, we never thought we would marry. It just didnt seem like a possibility because we lived in ohio. Ohio was one of the states that prevented samesex marriage. Things started to change for us really for not very good reason. Thats when he was diagnosed with als in june of 2011. You know, when the person you love is diagnosed with a terminal disease, theres only one way this is going. It makes you start thinking about things a little bit more seriously than maybe you did previously. We had talked about marriage over the years, but for us, getting married and having it be only symbolic wasnt something we were willing to do. We wanted it to mean something. We wanted it to be legal and have our government say yeah, you exist. So he was diagnosed with als in 2011. And by april of 2013, he was completely bedridden and i was his fulltime caregiver. We had at home hospice care for five hours a week. Thats what you do when you love someone. June 26th of 2013, not only did chris and sandys case come out, but that was also the Supreme Court decision on the winter case. Which struck down part of the defensive marriage act. And an impromptu moment i hugged and kissed john and said lets get married. How do we get this dying man to another state . We eventually settled on maryland because they did not require both people to appear in person to apply for a marriage license. By virtue of chartering a medical jet and flying to maryland with johns aunt, we got married inside that small jet on the tarmac at the airport. That was all we wanted to do. Simply get married. Five days after we got married we were introduced to a civil rights attorney. He said do you understand when john dies, his last official record as a person will be wrong. Ohio will say hes unmarried and your name wont be the surviving spouse. We hadnt thought about that. We knew ohio wouldnt recognize our marriage in maryland. But that was an abstract concept. And that started our case, and our case was based on the argument that in ohio, ohio would not issue marriage licenses to First Cousins or underage couples. But if First Cousins got legally married in another state or First Cousins got married legally in another state and they moved to ohio. Ohio would immediately recognize that marriage. So that was the heart of our argument. And we won in federal court 11 days after we got married. Then we ended up in the sixth Circuit Court of appeals with five other cases. You know how the rest turned out. So thats my story. [ applause ] okay. Wow. No . Jk. Oh. Wow. Tough to follow. Okay, so first i just want to say, like, hi, marty. We go way back. And also similar to you, i never have thought of myself as an activist. Or an advocate. Or an educator or any of the other things that are stated in my bio and included on my website. I did not write that. I just thought i was someone who was trying to be the best them they could be. That i was going to make a difference in this world for women, for women of color and for transgender women by assimilating. By blending in. By being successful in my corporate endeavors and getting an education and doing all the things people think we just cant do. Thats highwayow i was making a impact. All of sththat got thrown in my face and a tornado came through. Its name was house bill 2 in North Carolina. And hrc. Marty rowes who went from someone i didnt know to being someone who i thought of as one of my like, guru, like, i texted him more than i texted my husband. And equality in North Carolina, which i now have the pleasure of sitting on the board of. They all contacted me and said candice, you know, your story is really amazing. We think you would be a great person to come down here and tell your story and i said, oh, sure. Of course. I dont mind doing that. And i did. And then chad griffin, i dont know if you you know, he said lets go for a walk. Im not making this stuff up. I said, okay. Where are we walking to . The Governors Office. Oh, okay. Why . And i blinked my eyes and next thing i know im walking into his office with about 5,000 news cameras at our backs as we step over the threshold. And we spend about 30 minutes talking to him. And telling him i am a North Carolina citizen, im transgender how this bill affects me and my life. I walk out of there and everyone is asking questions. Why is this such a big deal . And then i saw on like, cnn, like my picture. And i was like, hey. And theyre like, the only transgender person to have met with the governor. I was like, wait, im the only one . And with hrcs help and them coming into our state and taking over our state, i think marty feels like hes a North Carolina resident. They were there so much really helping us and coordinating and working with constituents all over the state and helping to educate people. And show people ways in which they could help. And, you know, to toot your own horn. With hrc and a lot of peoples help, and to pat my own self on the back, we were able to unelect the first incumbent North Carolina governor in history. [ applause ] depending on if you live in virginia or North Carolina, thats a big deal since were the first state. Virginia. Colony, all that stuff. So from that moment on, my life i got a lot of attention and a lot of people started noticing me. I said lets take advantage of this. And be visible i think that America Needs to just have someone in front of them and uncomfortable moments and say, hi, im transgender. What do you want to know. I took eventualadvantage of eve opportunity. I was like, what am i doing . Getting to work with kacate blanchett. Im name dropping because im like this is my life now . I get to travel all over the world and i get to talk to people about my life which i thought was basic because i was blending in. Through doing that i realize that people within the Lgbtq Community and outside the community, has a lot of misconceptions. A lot of false notions of what transgender looks like. What it means to be. What we go through. One thing its done for me, which is what made me feel passionate and ill shut up. Im long winded. About coming to do this, is i have same sex parents. I know people are like, oh. And im like, not exciting. But i remember going to connecticut with them so they could get legally married. After having been my parents for 25 years. And being amazing, amazing moms. And now that marriage is recognized. But i remember how much that hurt, that i was able to marry my fifth gender husband five years before my parents marriage. And mine was legally recognized at a wake county courthouse in raleigh, North Carolina. That hurt because these people, they paid for my transition. They supported me. They raised me. They loved me. What do i deserve to have the government recognize within me that my parents dont . Then something ive now learned is that we cant be too congratulatatory with ourselves. When people talk about Marriage Equality, they talk about gender. And when people talk about gender, they still try to think of gender in the very narrow, you know, male and female, male male, female, female and they prove how little we actually understand about humanity and about gender and about sexuality. And so when were talking about Marriage Equality, they sometimes lump transgender in and sometimes they remove us from it. And we have to make sure that people understand that weve got the legal stuff but we still have the social work to do. And that is educating our population on who we are and what we look like and what our needs are. Ill shut up now. [ applause ] hi. I grew up in california. And when i came out when i was a freshman in college i was 18 years old. I was happy to know that about myself, but i also knew i lived in a state where i would never be married. And i would never have children. Thats what it seems like to me at the time. Im older now and i was fortunate many years later to fall in love with sandy almost 18 years ago. At work where we spent a lot of time. And when we fell in love we also recognize there was the same limitation in california that there had been when i was a freshman in college. We wanted to pursue marriage anyway. We were really in love. We each had two sons. We were blending our family. We were building a home and a life. We wanted what everybody in our family had, the right to choose, make the most important choice you make as an adult. The person youll spend your life with. So even though we didnt think it would be legally recognized we were going to go down that path. She said great, how do we do that. And we started figuring it out but it was the sa